Page 32 of Bet On Me, Daddy

The annoyance he’d seen in her eyes was there in her voice, as well. It was too tight, too flat, not all like what he was used to hearing from her. “You don’t sound surprised. You sound pissed.”

“I’m not. I’m just busy.”

Liar. Now that he’d picked up on her aggravation, he could see it in the way she held her shoulders, the way she was clenching her jaw.

If they’d been in a scene, he would have had plenty of ways to force the truth out of her. But not only was it highly inappropriate to bend her over and spank her gorgeous ass in the middle of his crowded lobby, he had no right. No right to touch her, but more, he had no right to the truth, to her inner thoughts and emotions.

That was for her Daddy, not some casual play partner.

So even though it was physically painful to do so, he took a step backward and forced a smile. “All right. I’ll leave you to it, then. See you later, Ruby Red.”

Turning on his heel, he strode back to the elevator, fighting with every fucking step the urge to turn back around and claim her.

Ruby wasn’t his. And that was exactly how it needed to be.

Beckett

If he’d thoughthe couldn’t get Ruby out of his head before, it was nothing compared to the level of obsession that consumed him after their run-in downstairs. And the more he thought about her, the more he worried about her. And the more he worried, the more irritated he became.

By the time he made it home, he might as well have had one of those black clouds hanging over his head, like in the cartoons.

That black cloud was not helped in the least by the buzzing of his phone with a message from Ice letting him know he was on his way to Beckett’s for their regularly scheduled workout session.

Fuck.

He was tempted to beg off. The phone was already in his hand, and he wanted nothing more than to text Ice back and let him know he was taking the day off.

But he’d never skipped a workout, other than that one time a few years ago when he’d had the flu and even his personal trainer had told him to keep his ass in bed. If he told Ice he wasn’t feeling it today, Ice would just come over anyway to fuss over him.

And as much as he loved his friend, he didn’t want or need a Daddy, thank you very much.

Better to just get it out of the way. Maybe if he was lucky, the endorphins from the workout would help take his mind off a certain auburn-haired beauty.

He was just coming back downstairs after changing into a pair of loose shorts and sneakers when the front door opened. Ice, dressed in a similar outfit but with the addition of a black hoodie, stepped inside and grinned. “Ready to let me whip your ass?”

“You aren’t whipping anything. And close the damn door, I already pay a fortune to heat this fucking house, I don’t need to heat the outside, too.”

Eyebrows raising, Ice nudged the door shut behind him and shifted the gym bag on his shoulder. “What crawled up your ass and died?”

“Nothing. Are you here to work out or talk shit?”

Tilting his head to the side, Ice pretended to think about it. “Both. Definitely both.”

“Whatever.” Without bothering to wait around for Ice to hassle him about being a dick, Beckett turned on his heel and headed for the stairs down to his basement gym.

Ice followed, wisely keeping his mouth shut as they each chose a treadmill.

Cardio wasn’t Beckett’s favorite thing by a long shot, but today he was actually looking forward to a good, hard run. Beside him, Ice’s music blared out from his headphones and not for the first time Beckett wondered how the fuck he hadn’t completely destroyed his hearing between his actual concerts and the ones he held for himself during their workouts.

Popping his own ear buds in, Beckett picked a random workout mix and turned on his machine.

And as he ran, his mind drifted back to Ruby, the way it had been all fucking day.

Was she still working? Or was she home, preparing for her shift at BDE? Had she gotten a chance to rest between jobs? Was she thinking about him and the promise he’d made her last night? Was she still pissed about… whatever it was she’d seemed so pissed about when he’d seen her at lunch?

That was a sticking point, he was willing to admit. She’d seemed fine at the coffee shop, and no matter how many times he ran that interaction over and over in his head, he couldn’t pinpoint anything he’d said or done that could have pissed her off.

He was so stuck on it, in fact, even his usual runner’s high wasn’t enough to get her out of his head. Neither was the brutal weight-lifting routine he and Ice went through together afterwards.

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